First Day of School (now over a month ago)

Savannah and Riley's first day:

Gray started a week later. Here they are again:

I love them!

Continued Summer Fun

So, here is what happened for the rest of our summer, once we returned to Massachusetts. I know you have been waiting at the edge of your seat.

First of all, we went to Quincy to see John Adams' houses. That would be John Adams, plural and possessive. Not sure how to do the punctuation on that one, feels like I should add a couple of more 'S's there. Anyway, John Adams (2nd president) and John Quincy Adams (6th president) had a couple of houses there. Make sense? Okay..moving on.

It was a not a very picture-taking-friendly kind of place. Gotta preserve all that old stuff, ya know? Which worked out well because I forgot my camera. I did take this with my cell phone though. Doesn't do it justice but I'm sure if you're deeply interested you could google it and get some great interior pics.

The kids and I went berry picking. We picked blueberries (and by "we" I mean Savannah and I while the boys ran around wildly) with the Adams' (not related to the aforementioned Johns) and Jacksons.

Savannah and Taylor

Crazy boys

The Monday before school started we canoed down the Concord river. We went to the North Bridge. It was beautiful and tons of fun. We even sang "Row, row, row your boat". In rounds. Awesome. And not as much work as you might expect. My suggestion: take someone bigger and stronger than you and place them in the rear of the boat and appoint yourself as photographer. Perfect!

Working hard

Happy End of Summer!

Next to come: First day of school and Camp Bournedale

Now that the bawling has tapered off a bit...

I think I'm ready to give an update and post a few pictures from the summer. That is, for those you (Jennie and Linda) that have not completely given up on my blog due to my super long hiatus'(Is that a word? Well, it is now.).

So right after the kids got out of school in mid-June our Davis cousins came to visit from the state of Wyoming. We had a blast! We went to the beach, movies, Six Flags, Palmyra (in the 12 passenger van. And there were only 11 of us! Of course 7 of those were tiny little bodies so there was tons of room.), did all the major Boston sites, and were able to spend lots of time together. Here are some pics:

The Good Guys with the Green Lantern and Wonder Woman at Six Flags.

Red Sox game

Not long after that we went to Utah, for what was supposed to be 7-10 days. That's not how it turned out. Things started out really great and fun. We had time with family and went to the carnival and parade and fireworks for Steele Days.

The parade with the Tholl cousins

And then "it" happened. The event that would turn our "visit" into what my parents had to of been guessing would be a permanent situation. Riley broke his arm. Fortunately we do not have the "before" pictures just "after" when the cast was put on. He was in a soft cast and sling from Wednesday until Monday and then got to pick out this beauty of a color: We found out the hard way that yellow doesn't do the best job hiding all of the little things that an 8 year old boy might get on a cast in the middle of summer. But that's okay. Three weeks later he got the pin removed and chose blue instead. I'm very grateful for that decision.

Over the weekend we got to spend time with the Davis side of the family. We had a fun time playing water balloon volleyball.

Good thing my daughter has some height to compensate for being extremely outnumbered when it comes to boy/girl ratios among the cousins. I think the only thing that saves her is that she towers over most of the boys.

Summer was also full of:

A brand new four-wheeler

Fishing

Fun at the cabin

Lagoon

Celebrating Savannah's 10th Birthday

We did eventually make it home again and I do have more to post. But for now I think we could all use a break.

Let me introduce myself...

My name is Stephanie. I've been gone for awhile. And back for awhile actually.

Our 7 to 10 day trip to Utah turned into a month. Riley broke his arm. Bad. He had to have surgery and everything. A giant pin was inserted. And then removed three weeks later. That's when we returned to Mass. And tried to enjoy what was left of summer.

The older kids started school on Wednesday. I'm enjoying my last days alone with my baby before he starts Kindergarten on Tuesday. I'll try to post pictures if I can stop bawling long enough to do so next week. I don't want him to go. :(

Scooperbowl 2009

The Jimmy Fund does a fundraiser every year where you pay a flat rate and can enjoy as much ice cream as you like. There is everything from Baskin Robbins to Brighams to some fancy italian gellato. Tons of vendors. Yum! Savannah and her friend Maria with the ice cream cups they had eaten.

My boys with their friends Zach and Dallin.

The whole gang. Now just imagine getting all of these kids through Boston on the subway. Together. In one piece. Well, we made it. And even had some fun in the process!

Polo anyone?

Did you say polo? Why yes, I did. Saturday evening we went down to Portsmouth, Rhode Island to a polo match. Fun, fun, fun! I must say that the price of admission was worth the people watching alone. From the wine glasses to fancy 19th century style dresses it was fantastic. We even got to go stomp on the divets in between chukkas (periods of play, for those of you not familiar with the sport).After the match the players ride around and give everyone a high-five. And yes, that is a man in a kilt next to Riley. The U.S.A. played Scotland so there were many a kilt to be seen. Richard was just sad that his was at the cleaners.

Grayson was the only one of our kids with the guts to go grab a game ball that bounced out of bounds. It's actually a lot lighter than it looks. Savannah got it signed by one of the players.

Now, off to my sailing lesson. (Not really. I'm trying to pretend that I'm all upper class-like now.)

As for those pictures...

Very special thanks to my sister-in-law, Jennie, who gave me a very tender nudge to get these pictures posted. In all honesty, I kind of forgot about them. That's what makes me such a great wife and mom- forgotten promises. :)

Cherry blossoms in Gettysburg near where President Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.

Some of Robert E. Lee's actual items, located in the Gettysburg museum.

Gettysburg Address Memorial

The Wright Brothers plane in the Smithsonian

Looking for fossils with a real life rocket scientist (paleontology is his hobby). Gray's favorite fossil? Coprolite. (Shark poop!)

Um, yeah. That's the real one.

I had to include this because it made me laugh so hard. We were on the Metro (subway) and the boys were sharing a seat. Riley started to tickle Gray's neck and every time he tried to stop Grayson would yell "Riley, keep tickling my neck!" in the near silent, yet very crowded train.

The White House, from a distance. Evidently there is some pretty tight security in those parts so we didn't make the effort to hike any closer than this. Hey, if we're not invited to sit in the Oval Office or around the dinner table with the Obamas than we'll just keep our distance altogether.

World War II Memorial. Absolutely beautiful!!

Washington Monument. Named after George Washington. ;)

The Lincoln Monument. From a distance...

And close up...

Grayson taking the time to crab-walk. He felt the need to do this quite often while we were touring, including in the National Archive building. Crab-walking his way right pass the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution.

And feeding the ducklings...

Umm, I can't remember where this was taken...

Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. You absolutely MUST SEE this sometime in your life!

Dorothy's REAL life ruby slippers from the movie.

Grayson's REAL life sneakers. He took this picture himself, right after we saw Dorothy's, as if he was thinking "What's so special about these red ones? Mine are just as cool."

Lincoln's hat, yeah, the real one. Love the Smithsonian and all of it's authenticity. Grayson wasn't wearing a hat that day and thus had nothing to compare.

The Washingtons meet the Davis'. Taken at Mount Vernon.

Mount Vernon- we thought we could "stop by" on our way home. Not so. You could spend an entire day in this place with all there is to see.

The view from the Washington's back porch, plus a gorgeous man and his kids.

George and Martha with their cute grand kids. Well, at least the boy. No disrespect Patsy.

Valley Forge, happened to come upon it on our way home. See? Planning a route home isn't always necessary. You never know what you'll stumble upon...

In Arlington Cemetery with the sites of D.C. in the background and a pretty darn awesome family in the foreground.

There are, of course, many more photos so if you did not get your fill, please come visit and we can enjoy hours of fabulous viewing together. We really did have an amazing time, even the 8 hour drive was enjoyable! This was one of my favorite vacation spots and we hope we can go again!

(Alright Jennie, there you have it. Now I am expecting a pretty darn awesome comment in return. Love ya!)

*The abundance of pictures of our third born is in no way an indication that he is the most loved and/or favored of our children. It is only proof that he loves the camera with all of his heart and we are all too happy to give in to his constant "Take my picture!" requests.